A Tory front runner to replace Laura Sandys as South Thanet MP is Amandeep Singh Bhogal.

The father-of-two, 29, describes himself as an industrialist, diplomat and farmer.

He said: “I want to campaign to regenerate the area, rejuvenate the opportunities in Thanet and re-ignite the passion in young people locally to be competitive in the global race to be the best. It is to serve the people of South Thanet and drive everyone forward that I am now running a supercharged campaign to be the local MP for South Thanet in 2015 as the first ever Sikh in Parliament.”

He said he had been “very sad” to hear that Laura Sandys was stepping down. He found out on Twitter the morning of the announcement. That afternoon he was in Ramsgate meeting local people.

He has been a visitor to the constituency from his Bexley home every day since.

In Ramsgate alone, he has attended Christ Church, congratulated the Friends of Ellington Park on their success in the People’s Millions and addressed students at St Lawrence College about young people in public life.

Mr Singh Bhogal said: “I was delighted to help the community clear up the aftermath of the tidal surge in Viking Bay, Broadstairs. So far every single resident that I’ve spoken with across South Thanet, has been welcoming, respectful and profoundly interested in how I wish to serve them. With that in mind, when I see that Mr Farage agrees with his close ally UKIP councilor Victoria Ayling who says ‘I just want to send the lot back’, I say, Kent is my home and I am not going anywhere.”

He has been a committed Conservative since he was 13 and at Beths Grammar School, Bexley.

In 2012, he stood for the London Assembly with Boris Johnson.

“I am young, but very experienced,” he said, describing his life to date as “super-charged.”

He went straight from school into the Foreign Office into the East European/Russian department.

His grandfather came to the UK in 1959 to “achieve better in life, not just to make extra money.” His family’s focus has been to integrate and progress through hard work.

He married Pari when he was 19 and the couple have daughter Sukhamani, seven, and son Arjun, three.